KY 503.100 Prevention of a suicide or crime.

State: Kentucky

Kentucky Revised Statutes (K.R.S.)

Title L. Kentucky Penal Code

Chapter 503. General Principles of Justification

503.100 Prevention of a suicide or crime.

(1) The use of physical force by a defendant upon another person is justifiable when the

defendant believes that such force is immediately necessary to prevent such other

person from:

(a) Committing suicide or inflicting serious physical injury upon himself; or

(b) Committing a crime involving or threatening serious physical injury to person,

substantial damage to or loss of property, or any other violent conduct.

(2) The use of deadly physical force by a defendant upon another person is justifiable

under subsection (1)(b) only when the defendant believes that the person whom he

seeks to prevent from committing a crime is likely to endanger human life.

(3) The limitations imposed on the justifiable use of force in self-protection by KRS

503.050 and 503.060, for the protection of others by KRS 503.070, for the

protection of property by KRS 503.080, and for the effectuation of an arrest or the

prevention of an escape by KRS 503.090 apply notwithstanding the criminality of

the conduct against which such force is used.